Rule no.0012 - Things Accumulate
from: The 4,040 rules of Art Conduct
Rule no.0012 - Things Accumulate
As artists we need to account for accumulation. Over time, if we are working, things accumulate. It is best to plan on accumulation, to document it, to organize it. We don’t realize at the beginnings of things how they will grow and multiply.
At the start we feel small and unaccomplished. Of course we are. When we compare ourselves with the older masters we wonder how will we ever accomplish it. How will we ever come close to what they have achieved? They seem great because of the rule that ‘things accumulate’. Day by day they work, day by day things accumulate. The masters accumulate skill, they accumulate disciple, they accumulate reputation and wisdom. Little by little, day by day, a little more and a little more and soon it seems like a massive and deep body of work. But it is just accumulation. Slow, steady, continuous.
But the secret is to think of it all, a whole lifetime’s worth, as a single work. Where does everything fit? How does everything relate to each other? How has the trail developed?
Start now and keep things organized. Lay out the trail behind you, calculate where it is going, read the entrails, study the tea leaves. Intuit the next step. Make notes, speculate, ask questions, face the answers, keep working. What gaps need to be filled? What questions need to be answered or resolved? What has yet to be explored? We cannot know until we get there, until we have to overcome an obstacle or work our way through an impasse. Your life itself is your art, the whole of it. What you do, how you do it, what you make of it and make out of it. Those are the things the old masters have done and are doing now. Be patient, be resolved, continue forward.
From the unpublished manuscript: The 4,040 rules of Art Conduct
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Rule no.12 resonates loudly for me as I take apart the accumulations of a studio I've worked in for 10 years to move to a new one - what remains relevant? why did I keep this? who was the person who made this? where is she now? - all buzzing around my head. Thanks for the great food for thought this morning.
"But the secret is to think of it all, a whole lifetime’s worth, as a single work. Where does everything fit? How does everything relate to each other? How has the trail developed?" This was great, full of sage advice! I shall be reminding myself of this when I try to get too much done too quickly. Accumulation requires some patience, does it not?